In a conventional printing system, the user must input the same settings as previous print settings to a printer driver when requiring exactly the same output result as an output result obtained at print settings temporarily input to the UI of the printer driver. Elements (items) which can be set by the printer driver are complicated, and setting to obtain the same print result as a previous one is very troublesome.
To solve this problem, according to techniques disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-256007 (FIGS. 3 and 8 to 10, paragraphs 0048 to 0067) and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-330638 (FIGS. 3 and 8 to 10, paragraphs 0039 to 0044), print settings can be reproduced by displaying a print history of past print operations on a host computer and prompting the user to select one of the print operations. According to a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222159 (FIGS. 3 and 4, paragraphs 0039 to 0044), driver settings (print settings) frequently used can be reused by giving “favorite” settings to the UI of a printer driver. According to a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-91389 (FIGS. 20 and 21, paragraphs 0080 and 0081), settings are managed separately as common settings and device-dependent settings in order to implement “favorite” settings for a plurality of printers. A technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-140854 (FIG. 2, claim 1) provides a print policy creation program which can arbitrarily create and edit print conditions by using, as print setting conditions, document conditions associated with a document and print attributes for giving an instruction to a printer. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-118095 (FIG. 8, paragraphs 0043 to 0046), a folder dedicated to store print data is prepared to implement a hot folder function of, when it is detected that print data has been stored in the folder, generating a print job at predetermined settings.
The above-mentioned documents disclose techniques to hold print data, print settings, and the like designated in printing on a computer, and to reproduce them in the form of a history, favorite, or hot folder.
With recent development of techniques such as Web services, a processing module (to be referred to as a driver filter hereinafter) in a printer driver can be technically updated in real time. Since a printer is also connected to a network, a processing module (to be referred to as a device filter hereinafter) in a printer can also be technically updated in real time. In the environment where the driver filter and device filter are updated in real time by Web services or the like, the computer does not always store the update status (e.g., the version of a currently installed device file) of the device filter of the printer. Information such as print settings designated in printing on a computer cannot provide information on a device filter which is actually used in the printer. No image output can be faithfully reproduced as a final print result.
The filter in the present invention means a program (software component) which is plugged in order to add any additional function, or perform any operation so as to select data before data is passed to the processing body of application software. The mechanism of the filter is similar to a technique called a hook, but is different from the hook because the hook always transfers all data having undergone any processing to a downstream software component without omitting any data.